15 May 2008

Young, Bland, & Spencer = Conspiracy!

So if you’re into watching for Obama gossip over the past few weeks, chances are you’ve heard at least some part of a conspiracy that involves Barack Obama and murder. You see, two men, Donald Young and Larry Bland, both gay men, were shot last year. Chicago police seem to think it may be the work of a serial killer targeting homosexuals.

A number of conspiracy theorists have tried to force an association between these murders and a third death, that of Nate Spencer, and all three to Barack Obama—even going so far as to accuse him of direct involvement with the deaths. I won’t post links to specific sites, but you can Google Big Head DC, Larry Sinclair’s site, or a related joint run by Citizen Wells, to read up on these theories. (Added: you can read this post about the rumor's origins).

For the sake of pragmatism, let’s have a look at the men and their deaths here.

Donald Young was a choirmaster at Trinity United church of Christ (Obama’s church). He was murdered in December 2007. Mr. Young was gay.

Larry Bland was murdered in his Chicago home on 11/17/07. He was gay. This seems to be the extent of the alleged "Obama connection": he was gay, black, and murdered. I can’t find any material that confirms whether Mr. Bland attended services at TUCC, an assertion often made to “fit” the Obama relationship.

Nate (or Nathaniel) Spencer was a member of TUCC, and he was gay. Mr. Spencer died at some date prior to 12/31/07. Although people say he was murdered, I can't find evidence to support that claim. Indeed, Mr. Spencer might have died from natural causes.

A look at the TUCC church bulletin of November 27, 2005, features a prayer request for Nate Spencer and a notice of Spencer's hospitalization.

Two years later, Spencer once again appears on the TUCC bulletin ofNovember 4, 2007, but this time he is listed as a church member who is “sick and shut in.”

Mr. Spencer’s death has been discussed briefly by his friend Tim; according to his blog, Tim learned of Spencer's death at the end of December 2007. According to the TUCC bulletin, Spencer was sick and shut in the previous month, and, he’d been hospitalized two years before that. It's fairly rudimentary evidence, but you can begin to draw some conclusions here.

Because of the dearth of online information about Mr. Spencer, a swath of rumors has cropped up to allege that the internet has been “scrubbed” by the Powers That Be to prevent clever bloggers from discovering the “truth” of Mr. Spencer’s death. Why, naturally.

I suppose it’s not worth wasting my energy asking this: if Mr. Spencer’s death was scrubbed to protect Obama, why are reports about the deaths of Mr. Young and Mr. Bland, who the conspiracy theorists also tie to Obama, still extant?

You have to pity Tim; you can only guess how many emails he’s received from people wanting to know details about Mr. Spencer. It’s clear that he’s received enough to post a request to be left alone and that his friends, Donald Young and Nate Spencer, be left in peace. See here, here, and here. Caveat: I have not contacted Tim.

So, how did the "three murders at TUCC!" story start? See this post for a clue.